The work of design engineers is very individual, using personal approaches and methods, designers have an individual way of seeing a problem. In practice personal notes are used by every designer, often general comments about technical problems and situations. There are a variety of personal methods of supporting the design process and computer tools can make the whole design process more efficient. In professional practice you continually add to your existing knowledge base (notes), for your own purposes. In this case the intelligent personal assistant fulfils the role of those active notes. Based on real industrial procedures, the process is the result of many years of design experience. Numerous examples for practical use by professionals and students interested in real implementations of knowledge based systems in engineering. Two major ideas are connected: a computer system integrating computer design tools and a computer system fulfilling the role of an intelligent personal assistant. This user-friendly approach to the main ideas, concepts and techniques of an intelligent personal assistant, demonstrates it's unique position as a significant and fruitful knowledge based technique in engineering design. Uniquely deals with areas specifically important to designers, knowledge engineers and engineering software designers.